Thursday, 8 November 2012

Beetroot Tart...Eating Cake Underground

I attended a brilliant event last night, hosted by the cake-tastic Edinburgh Cake Ladies deep down under the streets of Edinburgh at The Real Mary Kings Close, literally under the Royal Mile. The event was aptly themed "Spooky Bakes" to compliment our totally creepy venue and the cake ladies certainly did not disappoint. Being underground and historic and atmospheric and all that the lighting didn't really lend itself to fab photographs, but there was a professional photographer on hand and you can check out the totally gory bakes on the Cake Ladies blog and on the STV Gallery.

My own offering wasn't exactly spooky...but it was flipping scary! For some sadomasochistic reason I decided to make pastry rather than a cake and chose a tart I had never made not to mention tasted before. How's that for suitably scary?

Before halloween I spied a link to a beetroot tart recipe on my twitter feed and thought that it would be perfect for this event...earthy, bright red and something totally different.

To me this tart is an alternative to pumpkin pie. It has the same warming spices...mixed spice, pimento (all spice) and ginger but with the earthy flavour of the pureed beetroot. The filling itself is very light, not as heavy as some pumpkin pies can be and has a nice blend of savoury and sweet.

I called it an Exhumed Beetroot Tart for the night in an attempt to make it more frightening...but really it wasn't going to win the best costume prize (not that it is a competition at all).

I loved it, I loved the night and I loved the bakes I tasted. The Edinburgh Cakes Ladies have done it again!

I'm tweeting!

Well hello there!!

Welcome to 21st century urban housewife! I hope that you enjoy my homely and sometimes scattered postings. I started this blog when my hubby and I first moved-in together. I wasn't working, so I was "keeping house" and writing about it. Since then, we've moved to Edinburgh and I've found myself in the middle of an active and enthusiastic foodie scene. While I'm still on a budget I'm allowing myself some indulgences...